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Funky Flying Wing Rotates 90 Degrees To Go Supersonic
Big Hairy Ian writes "An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual 'flying wing' concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel. The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound (PDF) produced by a sonic boom — a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses."
You are not packing people right, please refer to http://www.ryanair.com for more information.
I was still kindof worried when the presentation started to compare the concept to a frisbee.
Which direction does the wing rotate 90 degrees?
In the past some planes could achieve supersonic flight by rotating the whole plane 90 degrees (from level flight) Getting back to subsonic flight was sometimes a bit more difficult...
With apologies to George Clinton:
We got tha funk,
gotta have that funk (yea)
We got the funk,
That supersonic funk
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
In other news, Russia announces it has begun working on a radical new ultrasonic bomber design.
in an unrelated story, the entire staff at NASA was found snickering for no obvious reason.
$2,500 workstation
$7,500 SolidWorks license
$15,000 Doctoral candidate stipend
$75,000 University-mandated "Administration" expenses
In my twelve+ years lurking on Slashdot, this is the first time I've ever seen a lot of complaining about the actual content of an article.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)